sydney.

final australian destination. we've been couchsurfing with john, who has been great. he has a quaint little apartment in a beautiful area of the city. saturday night he took us out to bondi beach for food and a view of the water and skyline. on sunday stacy and i caught up with gerard; we met four couples down by the harbour for lunch [referred to as "the suspects"] absolutely fabulous company, lots of laughs.. wined and dined with sydney's elite. walked along the harbour to the opera house which is just a beautiful building, very impressive. apparently they have recently been granted 600 million dollars for an interior facelift! uncanny amount of money. monday was warm and sunny. dropped off the rental car, then that afternoon stacy and i took the ferry out to manly. saw the beach and just enjoyed the boat ride through the harbour and surrounding views. today was our last day in sydney. we walked into town a bit, picked up a few last items. wanted to eat something 'aussie' for lunch, and then went for pad thai.. (oops)

the last six months have been a whirlwind, that's for sure. i can still remember the initial shock of leaving asia and settling in melbourne.. then uprooting again for two months on the road. when we said goodbye to the car - which although she was hideous, served us well - the finality of getting on another plane really hit, but it wasn't sad. life is just constantly moving forward whether anyone likes it or not, so this chapters on it's last page. newzealand is next. walking back to john's this evening we were talking about leaving and how long we've been travelling together.. both baffled by how much we still enjoy each other's company(!) and how strange life will be when it's time to part.. still unreal that that will happen any time soon.

newcastle.

since breakfasting in balina on pancakes while dolphin and whale watching, we left our little nook in lennox head. couchsurfed a night with the host of all hosts, ross, in coffs harbour. we cooked up a moroccan feast and enjoyed the company of his brother, sister-in-law, and two quebecians who were also surfing there before we continued south to newcastle. we are currently staying with melissa's aunt, [a newfoundlander] and her uncle and cousin.. they have been so fabulous.

went to a reptile park and saw wombats, platypi, a swamp full of alligators.. there were little shows put on by the staff to tell you about different reptiles and spiders, you could touch most things and get a really close look. they had a 5.5m crocodile which looked more like a dinosaur and was extremely intimidating, even behind the fence.. and an 8m long reticulated python, weighing 150 kilos, so about 340 pounds. [oh, and it's the only kind of snake known to eat humans(!)] kangaroos and wallabees hopped around freely or relaxed in the sun, you could pet them if you liked.. it was a pretty cool park, we quite enjoyed ourselves.

otherwise: more feasting, and great wine! it's sean's birthday today so we celebrated by going out this afternoon with maureen (auntie) and toured through a champagne house and three or four different vineyards.. ended up deciding on a bottle of 'dolce per tutti' for dessert in a glass! the wind had a chill with it, but the sun was shining. i can think of a few family members who would've had a great time with us today. tomorrow we're crashing mel's cousin david's 17th birthday party (he shares the date with my two sisters on the 23rd), and then stacy and i are off to sydney saturday morning.. it's that time already. having to say more goodbyes just hasn't quite sunk in yet.. one more day to cope/deny..

lennox head.

airlie beach: hung out by the lagoon all afternoon.. swam.. walked the main strip.. lots of tourists, haven't seen that many young people in one place in awhile. then to rockhampton where we couchsurfed with this guy named samuel; wonderful gentle soul. lots of good talks, a bed (!), and we all got together with heidi and clare the next afternoon for a bbq by the river.. i don't know how those girls do it, they're modern day kerouac's, i swear. this is a brief overview of their two weeks on the road: they start driving, by the time they reach 1770 - yes, that is a place - they are completely out of both money and petrol. stranded there for four days, they sell a fishing pole for $20, dog sit for an afternoon and make another $30, and make it to rockhampton to meet us in time for heidi's birthday. we left them having no plans other than doing some fruit picking on a farm somewhere north.. i have no doubt that everything will work out just fine. always does.

hervey bay: voluntarily jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 ft. spectacular views of fraser island, it's lakes, the sandbars surrounding the islands.. the open ocean, turqoise and deep blue swirls; an aussie's interpretation of the northern lights. what a thrill hanging out the open doorway of an airplane before jumping, 60-second free fall. fastest minute of my life. once our chute opened (yay) everything slowed down, spinning in circles, checking out the scenery. surreal. i saw two dugongs swimming in the ocean below before coming in for a landing on the beach. knees and feet up, and my bum was in the sand before i knew it. still buzzing from this experience.

from there we spent about 4 days or so in noosa, hanging out with chris and his friends. great to catch up for a bit before he headed off to vietnam, and we continued down the coast. brisbane for a night which included a really bad keanu reeves movie and myself on the couch with a terrible head cold.. a drive along surfers paradise.. stopping in byron bay to eat lunch by the water, stacy and i eating ours out of tin cans.. and now, lennox head where we have full run of a trailer in a caravan park which is wedged nicely between the coast and a lake with black tea tree water..

PART IV: townsville/magnetic island.

since the tune-up, and getting kicked out of a campground before we even got out of the car (some people should not be allowed to work in customer service!) we spent an afternoon in townsville drinking coffees, window shopping and taking advantage of the waterpark that was basically 10-year-olds and under.. [we had more fun]. at 4 o'clock that afternoon we boarded the ferry, car et al, to magnetic island for the weekend. a place that prides itself in 320 sunny days a year..

five days later: still here! an incredible little island with tons of bays and beaches, walking paths, and spectacular weather, how could we leave so soon? we've set up camp at the koala sanctuary here and are feeling quite at home. sunday morning we splurged for an all-you-can-eat champagne breakfast; put them out of business. we sat outside in a garden area with a few animals that they bring out and tell you about, you can hold some of them and take pictures.. we all got to hold a cockatoo, melissa put some seeds between her lips and it plucked them out and shelled them with it's hammer-like tongue.. (their beaks don't close fully so you can see what's going on inside their mouths while they eat). they brought out a crocodile, a python.. we got to pet a koala bear.. and after all of that, we hit the white sandy beaches to bask in the sunshine. and that is exactly what we've done every day since. tomorrow we take the ferry back over to townsville, and head down to airlie beach.

PART III: daintree.

after another rainy day at ellis beach we continued north to daintree, home of the oldest rainforest in the world.. we settled into our cabin, grateful to be out of our tents for a night. spent a relaxing afternoon walking around the beach and swimming in a watering hole, and an evening of dominos and card games. this morning we woke and walked 5km through the rain forest.. assuming it was a boardwalk, we were ultimately unprepared for what ensued: hanging to vines lock-armed for dear life, a downpour, leeches and badly marked trails.. we came through unscathed, although chris missed a few blood suckers who got under his socks, and mel found one on her bum in the shower! we saw a python hanging out on some rocks, and hella big spiders everywhere. no crocs though.. heard a story about a 53-year-old man who went fishing with his wife a few weeks ago; went to get some supplies and never came back.. the only thing they found was his watch!

now we are back in cairns, dropping chris off at a hostel to be reunited when we get down the coast to noosa. we're townsville bound. get as far as we can tonight, and drive the rest in the morning. we've already put on 5000 km so it's time for the wagon to get a tune-up in the morning..

PART II: cairns/ellis beach.

after camping a night just outside of townsville, we spent the morning/afternoon soaking in some rays at mission beach. the five of us were prancing around the sand and in the waves wondering where everybody else was! although it's winter in aus, it was at least 26 degrees and the water was beautiful. making it up to cairns, we stopped in at the tourist info center only to discover that the stinger nets had just been taken down that day and that swimming had not previously been advised! thank goodness we didn't all get a shocking surprise while we so naively splashed in the surf.. we time things well. during the same visit we also learned that the following day was to be the calmest day of the year, p-e-r-f-e-c-t conditions for scuba diving the great barrier reef. locals and tourists alike jump at the opportunity for weather like this because it's impossible to predict. you can't book a dive in advance and count on the weather to hold.. we found a boat with room for five and booked on the spot for the following morning. stacy and chris did two introductory dives, mel and sean are certified and did two dives as well, and i stuck to snorkelling. [fish are not my fortay!] we got an hour and a half out on the boat, and saw waves breaking on the reef in the middle of the nowhere.. it looked really cool. as frightened as i was initially, and as frightened as i continued to be at some points, the experience was surreal. it's a whole new world, an entirely different dimension. we don't belong there, and the things that do are so impressive and fascinating.. the coral itself was all sorts of colors and sizes and shapes.. some moving, some still. the fish were anywhere from a few inches long to about three feet.. i held a sea cucumber.. saw a giant clam.. two sharks.. flying fish.. and an unknowable number of other things every color of the rainbow. oh, what a day.

currently at ellis beach, cleanest beach in queensland. our campsite is directly beside the water, a spectacular view of palm trees and islands.. this is paradise. we spent all day yesterday on the sand and in the water, and woke to rain. hoping it will clear soon and we'll have another sunny day.

PART I: outback/coast.

here are some blogs that i've been unable to post due to lack of internet connections; i will put them in sections for those of you who would be otherwise overwhelmed with a chapter-book-blog:


our first night in alice springs we decided to find a little patch of unclaimed land to camp instead of paying $50 for the same thing in a designated campsite. settling in for the evening, we woke to bright lights and a gruff voice calling out, "it's the police; open your tents"

positive that we were getting kicked out and had to pack up camp at 2am we groggily obliged. however much to our surprise, they were actually after two guys who had just robbed a place and were seen headed in our direction. [should that have been a relief?]

the next night we couchsurfed in this guy dave's apartment while he was off working in the bush for the week.. we were extremely gracious of him letting five people take over his space while he was away. and we took full advantage of the pool and all facilities, enjoying a day of watching movies and laying low.

back on the road, we passed the ufo capital of australia.. the devil's marbles, the pebbles.. (how these formations came to be, i have no idea. i've tried to find out but perhaps it's a mystery?) intruigingly beautiful. we passed tenant creek, mount isa.. termite mounds reaching up to at least four or five feet spotted the ground on both sides of the road and continued as far back as the eye could see..

we pulled into julia creek for a night, setting up camp right by the water. took a walk down a back road at sunset and watched the gold and orange spread over the fields on the horizon. it felt like home. we all lay out on the picnic table and did some star gazing before bed, the southern cross and shooting stars overhead..

we were all super amped to stop in at this dinosaur museum at hughender, but then nobody actually went inside because it cost too much! (stacy caught a look in the window) instead we sent postcards and enjoyed the outbacks best malts and burgers at a little diner down the street. after townsville, the coast. a phenomenal view of the sparkling water, winding roads, valleys and mountains and orchards.. sugar cane fields and banana trees on both sides of the road.. the smells of summer.